Speaking Up Assignment
Response to Activity 1
Choose three of the individual and contextual barriers to speaking up from the list above that you think are the most relevant to you and your personality type and discuss the following
The individual and contextual barriers of speaking up that are most relevant to me as a new graduate registered nurse are numbers 2, 8, and 10 from the list provided. That is a perceived position within the team, busyness, and not wanting to interrupt other activities and a steep power gradient and intimidation by senior staff.
- Why did you choose these three barriers?
- The reason I chose the three barriers is that I can relate to them and according to my opinion they are the reason why new graduate registered nurses cannot speak up in their place of work.
- If you have not experienced an event, what strategy do you believe would be the best response to the barrier?
- I believe that the best strategy to use is politely and assertively approach anyone in the management team and air your grievances. Some of the people in authority do not know what is happening on the ground and if you do not speak up you the intimidation will continue but if you do speak up some changes might happen.
- What do you believe would remove these barriers from practice?
- I believe that to get rid of the individual and contextual barriers of speaking up there is need of a change of attitude in how new graduate are viewed, also it is important to periodically expose the nursing students to practical experience in the actual field to help them have an easy and successful transition.
Response to activity 2
Describe a (briefly) example of what you believed was an ethical, legal, or clinical issue in practice that you have experienced that has led to a patient safety risk.
- Briefly describe the scenario
During one of my placement, I experienced a violation of ethical issues in the medical profession as one doctor performed a procedure without the patient’s consent. A patient needs to give informed consent before been taken through any medical procedure (Murray et al., 2019). In this case, the patient was brought in a critical condition without any physical injuries the doctor ordered for him to be prepared for surgery even without his consent of the procedure that the doctor wanted to perform on him.
- Choose your preferred acronym and write a response to how you would speak up
The acronym that I prefer is the 5-STEP ADVOCACY of speaking out as I believe the way one approaches a senior doctor determines the type of response they get from them. The 5-STEP ADVOCACY includes, getting the attention of the doctor, express your concern, speak out the problem in hand and how you see it, suggest a solution to the problem, and then acquire an agreement from the doctor. A good example is as follows, excuse me, doctor, the patient is going into shock I think we need to help them now. Let me arrange for a transfer to the intensive Care Unit so that we can help them recovers, does that sound fine to you?
Reference
Murray, M., Sundin, D., & Cope, V. (2019). New graduate nurses’ understanding and attitudes about patient safety upon transition to practice. Journal of clinical nursing, 28(13-14), 2543-2552.